Super Mario Bros. Movie Becomes Highest-Grossing Video Game Adaptation Ever, Reaches $500M in One Week
According to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the animated film starring Chris Pratt as the ubiquitous Nintendo character reached $500 million at the worldwide box office on Thursday after only one week of release.
Super Mario Bros. is now not only the highest-grossing film of the year to date, surpassing Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania, which debuted in February, but also the highest-grossing video game film ever.
Warcraft, the 2016 adaptation of the World of Warcraft video games, formerly held this position.
Super Mario Bros., which debuted in U.S. theatres on April 5 and grossed over $375 million worldwide in its inaugural weekend, set a new record before the Easter holiday. Approximately $204 million came from domestic sources.
It had the largest global opening weekend of any animated film, and it outperformed last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to become the video game film with the largest domestic opening.
In addition to Pratt, the voice ensemble for Mario also includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, and others. The film was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and was produced by Nintendo and Illumination, the studio responsible for the Despicable Me and Minions franchises.
Even though a sequel has not been officially announced, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri told Variety, “I definitely wouldn’t rule anything out.”
He added, “Our focus right now is entirely on bringing the film out to the audience, and at this time, we’re not prepared to talk about what’s coming in the future,”
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently playing in theatres.
